Stockholm Syndrome
by RotRubin
Summary: As he gets bored, Clockwork releases the entity from its slumber to do certain "tasks". And this is his most challenging one yet.
1. Preface

Series: Danny Phantom  
Pairing: Haunted Pair (Dan / Danny ) if you squint really hard.  
Rating: T for now, but I might (might) make it M.  
Summary: As he gets bored, Clockwork releases the entity from its slumber to do certain "tasks". And this is his most challenging one yet.

The room was cold and quiet. Alone on a shelf about a foot high, was a thin, steel thermos. Late at night in the Ghost zone, the thermos' cap begun to unscrew-the inhabitant wanted out. And by how fast the cap unscrewed, they wanted out fast. With the cap off, the dark presence slithered from the canister, around the dark cell. With one ghost in sight, he pounced.

"Time." Everything stopped. The demon of the canister was paused by force in mid-air. "

"Now Dan, I know you can hear me. " The demon did not stir. "I have a proposition for you. I will either send you to do a job for me, or I'll wipe your miserable speck of life from time. If you try to attack me after this, I'll carry out the latter."

He stood back, sceptre in hand. "Time in."

Dan flew through the air, and landed on his hands and feet.

"Do I need to repeat myself?"

Dan was quiet. "No." He looked down in defeat. It wasn't unlike Clockwork to carry out demands like this. He had Dan do many things that would mess up time, just for fun. However, at least Dan liked these tasks. Usually it would be something simple, like kill an official, or push someone off of a building. Sometimes it would be something a bit more strenuous such as wiping out a small mass of people. Oh what was he kidding, he enjoyed it. It was better than staying in that damned thermos. "What do you want this time?"

"An ultimate task."

"Such as?"

"I want you to... pester a certain someone."

"Your definition of pestering is different from mine, what do you actually want?"

"Instead of killing someone with brute force, I want to see how you act as a formidable opponent. I want you to finish off your ultimate opponent; your ultimate enemy."

Dan's brows arched in surprise. "Oh I have ways I've wanted to finish off this twerp for quite sometime. What's the challenge this time Clockwork?"

The all powerful ghost smiled. "You must never physically harm him."

Dan just smiled more. "I'll be back soon then."

Clockwork opened a portal to Dan's destination.

"We'll see."

Dan eagerly jumped through the green, swirling portal right before it closed.

"We'll see."


	2. Chapter One

Dan landed on his feet in a familiar setting. A blue-themed room. The bed was pressed up against the wall, a chest at the end. A desk on the side of it with a white lamp and computer. Pictures of astronauts and Space shuttles where covering a small part of the wall. He walked over and picked up a photo frame. A picture with his family and friends, alive and healthy behind the glass. He smiled and set it down. "I'm coming Danny boy." He shifted to translucency and stood against the wall.

Just in time, Danny walked through the door with his two friends, Tucker and Sam. The tossed their backpacks at Dan's feet. He scoffed in his head, and squinted his eyes. Danny hadn't sensed him yet, luckily. A couple minutes passed as they talked about things Dan honestly didn't care about anymore. He was still wondering how he would 'pester' Danny. He could use the method of talking in his dreams, he could overshadow people and ruin his life, there was a whole array of things he could do to the teen. But that would be just too easy. No fun would come out of that. Though Clockwork never said he couldn't harm anyone else...

Danny paused as his ghost senses triggered.

Damn, he was caught. He went through the wall, and fell into the basement, watching over Jack and Maddy. It was the same as he remembered it. His mother was busy, where his father just dicked around.

Typical.

He figured while he was here he'd go see Amity Park again before he hoped Clockwork would let him blow it off the map as he did prior. He couldn't torture someone while they where awake.

Well, not yet anyways. He'd get to that.

He stayed invisible, flying over Amity Park. All these ignorant ants would soon get what was coming to them.

A few miscellaneous pranks later, including tossing someone out of a tree, Dan flew back to the Fenton residence. It was too bad he had to waste time. At least the sun was setting now. He stayed invisible, going to the second floor room that belonged to him at one point. Danny was sitting quietly, typing up an essay. He could easily shatter the mother board of the device without getting caught, but that would mean Danny would stay up later to half-ass the assignment.

The life of a ghost was hard.

He sighed quietly, and walked over to Danny. Getting to about sentence four was agonzing. He remembered he never liked English but he never remembered being that atrocious. He shook his head as he thought up an idea. He let his palms go visible, placing them on Danny's shoulder.

"Dad what do you want?"

Dan chuckled inwardly.

"Dad?" The halfa turned in his chair. He rubbed the side of his head and ruffled his hair. "I guess I'm just tired..." He trailed off and turned back to the monitor.

Dan's smile quickly turned to a frown. 'What am I doing, this is child's play? Go to bed damn it.' He sat on the chest at the end of his former bed.

And, after an agonizingly slow hour, his wish was granted. Danny yawned, changed for bed and pulled the covers over himself.

"What a wonderful set-up we have here" he whispered. "This is going to be fun!" He gripped the top of the bedframe with one hand and sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned as close as he could to the teen. "I'm going to find you, I'm going to find your friends. I can make your life a living hell. I'll kill your family, your friends, and drive you to the edge. I'll do everything and anything to achieve what I want." Danny rolled over.

"Sweet dreams Danny boy."


End file.
